Providing help on visual components displayed on touch screens

ABSTRACT

An aspect of the present disclosure provides help on visual components of interest displayed on a touch screen. In an embodiment, a help icon is displayed along with visual components generated for interaction with an application. The user is permitted to associate the help icon with a visual component of interest (for example, by dragging and dropping the help icon on the visual component), and help passage associated with the visual component is displayed as a response. As the user can accurately indicate the visual components of interest, the relevant help passages can be accurately identified and displayed.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to computer systems, and morespecifically to providing help on components displayed on displayscreen.

2. Related Art

Touch screens are often seen employed in devices such as mobile phones,personal digital assistants, point of sale (POS) terminals, etc. A touchscreen generates signals (touch signals) responsive to touch/pressure onthe display screen, with the signals forming the basis for providingsuitable user interfaces. For example, selection of a URL may beindicated by a simple tap on a hyperlink displayed on a touch screen.Similarly, pinching, persistent touch, scrolling, etc., are also some ofthe commonly used touch operations associated with touch screens.

Visual components are often displayed on touch screens, forming thebasis for a suitable user interface. A visual component is any distinctportion identifiable as a separate displayed entity. Examples of visualcomponents include various graphical icons, blocks, etc., having somedistinct boundaries, as clearly perceivable by the human eye. The visualcomponents serve functions such as representing portions of a physicalproduct, as invocation points for corresponding functions provided by anapplication rendering the display, etc.

There is a general need to provide help associated with various visualcomponents displayed on touch screens. Help generally providesinformation on the details (e.g., information, manner of usage, etc.) ofthe corresponding component.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described withreference to the accompanying drawings briefly described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example special purposedigital computing system in which several aspects of the presentdisclosure can be implemented.

FIG. 2 is flowchart illustrating the manner in which help is provided onvisual components displayed on a touch screen, in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIGS. 3-5 are diagrams of an example user interface using which help isprovided on visual components in an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting the organization of help passagescorresponding to various visual components of an example user interface,in an embodiment.

FIGS. 7-8 are diagrams of an example user interface using which help isprovided on visual components in an embodiment.

In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical,functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawingin which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s)in the corresponding reference number.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

1. Overview

An aspect of the present disclosure provides help on visual componentsof interest displayed on a touch screen. In an embodiment, a help iconis displayed along with visual components generated for interaction withan application. The user is permitted to associate the help icon with avisual component of interest (for example, by dragging and dropping thehelp icon on the visual component), and help passage associated with thevisual component is displayed as a response.

As the user can accurately indicate the visual components of interest,the relevant help passages can be accurately identified and displayed.According to another aspect, only the help passage corresponding to thespecific visual component of interest is displayed when such passage isavailable associated with the visual component.

According to yet another aspect, the visual components are displayed ina hierarchy for convenient interaction by a user. In case a user selectsa visual component at a lower level, and there is no corresponding helppassage for the component, the help passages corresponding to only thehigher level component and the sub-components of the higher levelcomponent are searched for suitable text to display. The correspondingmatching text is displayed for the help passage, as a response.

Several aspects of the present disclosure are described below withreference to examples for illustration. However, one skilled in therelevant art will recognize that the disclosure can be practiced withoutone or more of the specific details or with other methods, components,materials and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures,materials, or operations are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring thefeatures of the disclosure. Furthermore, the features/aspects describedcan be practiced in various combinations, though only some of thecombinations are described herein for conciseness.

2. Example System

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the details of an example specialpurpose computing system in which several aspects of the presentdisclosure can be implemented. Special purpose computing system (System)100, which may for example correspond to a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile phone, etc., is shown containing central processing unit(CPU) 110), random access memory (RAM) 120, secondary memory 130, touchscreen controller 160, touch screen 170, mouse interface 180 and keypadinterface 190. All the components except touch screen 170 maycommunicate with each other over communication path 150, which maycontain several buses as is well known in the relevant arts.

CPU 110 may execute instructions stored in RAM 120 to provide variousfeatures of system 100. Thus, for example, when system 100 correspondsto a PDA, the operation of CPU 110 may enable a user to use one or moreof many user applications stored in the PDA and executable by CPU 110.The applications may include, for example, word processors, webbrowsers, email client, data organizers such as address books, etc. CPU110 may contain multiple processing units, with each processing unitpotentially being designed for a specific task. Alternatively, CPU 110may contain only a single general-purpose processing unit.

RAM 120 may receive instructions from secondary memory 130 usingcommunication path 150. RAM 120 is shown currently containing softwareinstructions constituting shared environment 125 and user programs 126.Shared environment 125 contains utilities shared by user programs 126,and such shared utilities include operating system, device drivers,etc., which provide a (common) run-time environment for execution ofuser programs/applications. User programs 126 may include applicationssuch as word processing, email client, etc., noted above. One or more ofuser programs 126 may be designed to interact with a user via agraphical user interface (GUI) presented on touch screen 170, describedbelow.

Secondary memory 130 represents a non-transitory machine readablestorage medium, and may store data and software instructions (forexample, for performing the steps of the flowchart of FIG. 2, describedbelow), which enables system 100 to provide several features inaccordance with the present disclosure. Further, secondary memory 130may store data representing various ‘help passages’ corresponding to anapplication executed by CPU 110. Secondary memory 130 may be implementedusing one or several non-volatile memory technologies such as flashmemory. The code/instructions stored in secondary memory 130 may eitherbe copied to RAM prior to execution by CPU 110 for higher executionspeeds, or may be directly executed by CPU 110.

Mouse interface 180 enables user-inputs to be provided to system 100 viaa mouse (not shown) connected on path 181. Keypad interface 190 isconnected to a keypad (not shown) via path 191, and enables user-inputsto be provided to system 100 via a keypad.

Touch screen controller 160 generates display signals (e.g., in RGBformat) to cause corresponding text or images (for example, in the formof a GUI) to be displayed on touch screen 170. Touch screen controller160 receives touch signals generated by touch screen 170, in response totouch/pressure (in general, the touch operations) applied on touchscreen 170. Touch screen controller 160 may process such touch signalsand generate digital data representing the touch signals.

The generated digital data is passed to appropriate execution entitiesvia the shared environment 125. For example, if a touch operation isperformed with respect to a visual component controlled by a userapplication, the digital data is eventually delivered to the userapplication.

Touch screen 170 displays text/images, etc, defined by the displaysignals received from touch screen controller 160. Thus, touch screen170 may display a GUI generated by an application executed by CPU 110.Touch screen 170 generates touch signals in response to touch operationsusing finger(s) or stylus, etc., with respect to a corresponding portion(for example a visual component) of touch screen 170. Touch screencontroller 160 and touch screen 170 may be implemented in a known way.

A GUI displayed on touch screen 170 may include one or more visualcomponents, as noted above. A user using the corresponding applicationgenerating the GUI may wish to obtain help on one or more of the visualcomponents. The manner in which such help is provided is described nextwith respect to a flowchart.

3. Providing Help on Visual Components

FIG. 2 is flowchart illustrating the manner in which help is provided onvisual components displayed on a touch screen, in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The steps in the flowchart are described withrespect to the example system of FIG. 1, and in a specific sequencemerely for illustration. Alternative embodiments in otherdevices/environments, and using a different sequence of steps can alsobe implemented without departing from the scope and spirit of severalaspects of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to one skilled inthe relevant arts by reading the disclosure provided herein. Theflowchart starts in step 201, in which control passes immediately tostep 210.

In step 210, a help icon is displayed along with visual components on adisplay screen. In the embodiments described below, the help iconcorresponds to a graphical icon (another visual component). However,alternative embodiments can employ simpler (e.g., as simple as a line ora circle) or complex visual components, without departing from the scopeand spirit of the present disclosure, as will be clear to one skilled inthe relevant arts by reading the disclosure herein. As described below,the help icon is provided to enable a user to obtain help text/topicsrelated to the other visual components displayed on the display screen.

In step 220, touch signals are received indicating that the help iconhas been associated (by a user) with a displayed visual component. Anysuitable conventions based on touch operations of users, can be employedfor such association. In the example embodiments described below, a useris shown employing a drag and drop touch operation (where the firsttouch/tap represents the selection of the help icon and swipingcontinues until the help icon is dropped on the component of interest)for such an association. Such a convention requires only a single fingerof a user. However, alternative conventions using multiple fingers,etc., can be employed in combination with the help icon, withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of several aspects of the presentdisclosure.

In step 250, a help passage associated with the component is retrieved.Thus, help passages may be maintained for at least each of the displayedvisual components, for which users are likely to seek help. When theuser thereafter selects a displayed visual component by the associationnoted in step 220, the help passage corresponding to the associateddisplayed visual component is selected. The help passage for each visualcomponent may represent information describing the component, its use orany other related information the user may be interested in.

In step 270, the retrieved help passage is displayed on the touchscreen. The term display includes sending the correspondingcommand/data, which causes the eventual display to be caused on adisplay screen. The flowchart ends in step 299.

It may thus be appreciated that help is conveniently provided associatedwith visual components of interest using a help icon and the touchfeatures present associated with the touch screen. In addition, sincethe intent of the user as to the specific visual component of interestis certain, relevant help passages can be displayed with a higherprobability at least compared to text-based search approaches. Thedescription is continued with respect to example user interface(s)implementing the approach noted above.

4. User Interface

FIGS. 3-8 together depict an example user interface using which help isprovided on visual components, in one embodiment. FIG. 3 depicts asimplified user interface 300 provided by a word processor application.User interface 300 is shown containing text edit area 320 and ribbon330.

Text edit area 320 is shown containing text presently being edited by auser with the cursor and mouse pointer respectively shown at 321 and322. As is well known, a cursor represents the position where any textinputs would be inserted (using keypad/board) and a mouse pointerrepresents the position pointed by the mouse. It should be appreciatedthat the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented inmobile phones/PDA type of devices, which may not have keyboard, mouse,etc., and the users of such devices can conveniently use the approachesdescribed herein to seek help on the displayed visual components ofinterest.

Ribbon 330 is shown containing various tabs (examples of visualcomponents) ‘File’, ‘Format’, ‘Layout’ and ‘View’, in addition to helpicon 310. It may be observed that each visual component is designed forcorresponding interaction by a user. The functions thus provided areorganized hierarchically for convenient navigation by the user.

The ‘File’ tab (representing a visual component) is shown as having beenselected and accordingly the sub-options ‘New’, ‘Save’ and ‘Print’ (allrepresenting visual components as well) are also shown in the ribbon. Itis now assumed that the user wishes to seek help on the ‘Save’sub-option, and the manner in which the features of the presentdisclosure can be used for obtaining help is described below withrespect to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 represents the display as a user uses a drag-and-drop operationto associate the help icon with the ‘Save’ sub-option. The user performsa drag-and-drop operation by first placing a finger (or stylus, etc.) onhelp icon at 310 and dragging (i.e., maintaining continuous touch withthe screen) the icon along the path shown until the icon is placed overthe ‘Save’ sub-option, as shown at 410. The various positions of theicon along the drag and drop operation are shown along the dotted path.

Upon completion of the dropping (i.e., finger being lifted) of icon 310,help message 510 is shown displayed in edit portion 320, as depicted inFIG. 5.

FIG. 6 depicts the organization of help passages corresponding tovarious visual components of GUI 300. The help passages available forsome of the components of GUI 300 are shown. The help passages togethermay be viewed as a help text and thus the help passages are shown storedas successive portions of the help text.

Help passages 605, 620, 630, 640 and 650 are assumed to be taggedassociated with visual components ‘Save’, ‘Format’, ‘Margins’,‘Orientation’ and ‘Size’. Tagging implies storing some configurationdata which indicates the specific help segment/text/passage isassociated with a corresponding visual component. As described below,the last three visual components are sub-options of ‘Format’ tab. It maythus be appreciated that the help passages are conveniently organizedmatching the hierarchy of the associated visual component.

Thus, when ‘Save’ sub-option is selected in FIG. 4, system 100 examinesthe help text of FIG. 6 to retrieve help passage 605 (tagged associatedwith the sub-option ‘Save’), and display the contained text, as shown inFIG. 5. While the help information is shown in the form of only text, itshould be appreciated other forms such as sound and video can also beemployed for providing help, as suited in appropriate situations.

From the above, it may be appreciated that the help information providedis precise and relevant to what the user seeks, since the user is ableto precisely indicate her/his visual component of interest, and the helppassages are organized associated according to the respectivecomponents.

Furthermore, even if a ‘Save’ sub-option is available under some otheroption or sub-option (such as for example ‘Layout’ tab 520), andassuming that sub-option has a different help information, suchinformation is not displayed in FIG. 6, thereby avoiding display ofpotentially irrelevant information. In general, it may be appreciatedthat only the help passage corresponding to the visual component ofinterest (and not the help passages for other visual components, even ifsimilar labeled) is sent for display.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides help information even if ahelp passage is not explicitly tagged for a corresponding visualcomponent. FIGS. 7 and 8 in combination with portions of FIG. 6 are usedto illustrate the manner in which such help information is provided.

5. Providing Help On a Component That Does Not Have a Tagged HelpPassage

FIG. 7 shows user interface 300, when the user has selected the ‘Format’tab. The corresponding sub-options ‘Margins’, ‘Orientation’, ‘Size’ and‘Columns’ are available for user-selection. It is assumed herein thatthere is no help passage tagged for visual component ‘Columns’Correspondingly, FIG. 6 does not contain a help passage explicitlytagged for ‘Columns’, although it may be observed that help passagesexplicitly tagged for main option ‘Format’ and the other threesub-options ‘Margins, ‘Orientation’ and ‘Size’ exist, as indicated byhelp passages 620, 630, 640 and 650.

In FIG. 8, the user is shown as seeking help on the ‘Columns’ sub-option(i.e., ‘Columns’ is the visual component of interest), as indicated bythe drag-and-drop of the help icon 310 on the ‘Columns’ sub-option.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, when a help passage isnot explicitly tagged for a component, system 100 determines if a parentcomponent is present. A parent component is the component that islocated immediately above (in hierarchy) the component for which help issought in a corresponding hierarchy of components.

To illustrate, the ‘Format’ component in FIG. 7 may be observed aslocated immediately above the sub-option components ‘Orientation’,‘Size’ and ‘Columns’, in the interface hierarchy. Thus, ‘Format’ may beviewed as a parent component, with ‘Orientation’, ‘Size’ and ‘Columns’being the corresponding child components. Thus, system 100 determines‘Format’ as being the parent component of ‘Columns’.

Having determined the parent component, system 100 performs a keywordsearch for the text ‘Column’, in a help portion starting from the helppassage corresponding to the parent component (‘Format’ in the example)and ending with the help passage corresponding to the last child in thehierarchy. With respect to FIG. 6, system 100 starts the keyword searchfrom the start of help passage 620 corresponding to ‘Format’, andobtains a match in the sentence/text indicated as 690.

System 100 then provides text 690 (“Text can be split into two or morecolumns ”) as the closest help passage/text for ‘Columns’, as indicatedby 810 in FIG. 8. The specific location in FIG. 6 of text 690 isprovided merely as an example, and text 690 may be located anywherewithin the start of help passage 620 and the end of help passage 650.

Although a simple keyword search is noted above as being performed bysystem 100, system 100 may employ other/more complex techniques (e.g.,based on various heuristics, etc.) to identify the help passage(s) to beprovided for a component that does not have a tagged help passage. Toenable identification of help passages for corresponding components,system 100 may maintain information specifying the hierarchies of thevarious components.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, a user application (e.g., the wordprocessing application, described above) generates/specifies the variousvisual components and operating system 125 (part of the sharedenvironment) adds help icon 310 to the visual display. Each visualcomponent has an associated function/utility that can be obtained byselection of the corresponding visual component. Instructions of theuser application are operative to provide the correspondingfunction/utility.

Thus, the features described above can be implemented with respect toany of the user applications, as suitable in corresponding environments.In addition, the features can be implemented in the context of theoperating system as well (with the help icon being displayed in additionto various desk top icons otherwise displayed, as an example). It maythus be appreciated that the help icon is displayed in addition to thevarious visual component generated for interaction with thecorresponding application.

6. Conclusion

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of thepresent disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-describedexemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with thefollowing claims and their equivalents.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, or similar language means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thus,appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment”, “in an embodiment” andsimilar language throughout this specification may, but do notnecessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics ofthe disclosure may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments. In the above description, numerous specific details areprovided such as examples of programming, software modules, userselections, network transactions, database queries, database structures,hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide athorough understanding of embodiments of the disclosure.

It should be understood that the figures and/or screen shots illustratedin the attachments highlighting the functionality and advantages of thepresent disclosure are presented for example purposes only. The presentdisclosure is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it maybe utilized in ways other than that shown in the accompanying figures.

Further, the purpose of the following Abstract is to enable the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially thescientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiarwith patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from acursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure ofthe application. The Abstract is not intended to be limiting as to thescope of the present disclosure in any way.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of providing help on visual componentsof interest displayed on a touch screen, wherein said method isperformed in a digital processing system containing said touch screen,said method comprising: sending for display a help icon along with aplurality of visual components on said touch screen; receiving one ormore touch signals indicating that said help icon has been associatedwith a visual component of interest; retrieving a help passageassociated with the visual component of interest; and sending fordisplay said help passage on said touch screen.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein said one or more touch signals are received upon a useraction of dragging-and-dropping of said help icon on said component ofinterest.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said visual components areprovided as part of a graphical user interface generated by a userapplication executed on said system, wherein only said plurality ofvisual components are generated by said user application and said helpicon is added for display on said touch screen by an operating system.4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a plurality ofhelp passages in a memory, each associated with a respective visualcomponent of said plurality of visual components, wherein saidretrieving retrieves the help passage from said memory prior to sendingsaid help message for display.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein saidvisual components are displayed according to a hierarchy such that afirst component is a parent to a set of child components, each of thechild components corresponding to a sub-option of a higher level optionrepresented by said parent, wherein said maintaining stores helppassages associated with said first component and some of said set ofchild components, wherein a second component representing one of saidset of child components corresponds to said visual component ofinterest.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein a first help passage isstored associated with said second component, and only said first helppassage among all help passages maintained for said visual components,is sent for display as a response to said help icon having beenassociated with said second component.
 7. The method of claim 5, whereinsaid second visual component does not have an associated help passage,said method further comprising: examining the help passagescorresponding to said parent and said set of child components toidentify a closest help text for said second component; and sending theclosest help text as said help passage for display on the touch screen.8. The method of claim 5, wherein the help passages corresponding tosaid parent and said set of child components are stored as successiveportions of a help text.
 9. A non-transitory machine readable storagemedium storing one or more sequences of instructions for enabling adigital processing system to provide help on visual components ofinterest displayed on a touch screen in said digital processing system,wherein execution of said one or more instructions by one or moreprocessors contained in said digital processing system causes saiddigital processing system to perform the actions of: sending for displaya help icon along with a plurality of visual components on said touchscreen; receiving one or more touch signals indicating that said helpicon has been associated with a visual component of interest; retrievinga help passage associated with the visual component of interest; andsending for display said help passage on said touch screen.
 10. Thenon-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein saidone or more touch signals are received upon a user action ofdragging-and-dropping of said help icon on said component of interest.11. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 9,wherein said visual components are provided as part of a graphical userinterface generated by a user application executed on said system,wherein only said plurality of visual components are generated by saiduser application and said help icon is added for display on said touchscreen by an operating system.
 12. The non-transitory machine readablestorage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions formaintaining a plurality of help passages in a memory, each associatedwith a respective visual component of said plurality of visualcomponents, wherein said retrieving retrieves the help passage from saidmemory prior to sending said help message for display.
 13. Thenon-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein saidvisual components are displayed according to a hierarchy such that afirst component is a parent to a set of child components, each of thechild components corresponding to a sub-option of a higher level optionrepresented by said parent, wherein said maintaining stores helppassages associated with said first component and some of said set ofchild components, wherein a second component representing one of saidset of child components corresponds to said visual component ofinterest.
 14. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium ofclaim 13, wherein a first help passage is stored associated with saidsecond component, and only said first help passage among all helppassages maintained for said visual components, is sent for display as aresponse to said help icon having been associated with said secondcomponent.
 15. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium ofclaim 13, wherein said second visual component does not have anassociated help passage, said non-transitory machine readable storagemedium further comprising instructions for: examining the help passagescorresponding to said parent and said set of child components toidentify a closest help text for said second component; and sending theclosest help text as said help passage for display on the touch screen.16. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13,wherein the help passages corresponding to said parent and said set ofchild components are stored as successive portions of a help text.
 17. Adigital processing system comprising: a touch screen; a memory; and aprocessor wherein said processor to retrieve instructions from saidmemory and execute the retrieved instructions, causing said digitalprocessing system to perform the actions of: send for display a helpicon along with a plurality of visual components on said touch screen;receive one or more touch signals from said touch screen indicating thatsaid help icon has been associated with a visual component of interest;retrieve, from said memory, a help passage associated with the visualcomponent of interest; and sending for display said help passage on saidtouch screen.
 18. The digital processing system of claim 17, whereinsaid one or more touch signals are received upon a user action ofdragging-and-dropping of said help icon on said component of interest.19. The digital processing system of claim 18, wherein said visualcomponents are provided as part of a graphical user interface generatedby a user application executing in said digital processing system,wherein only said plurality of visual components are generated by saiduser application and said help icon is added for display on said touchscreen by an operating system executing on said digital processingsystem.
 20. The digital processing system of claim 18, wherein saidvisual components are displayed according to a hierarchy such that afirst component is a parent to a set of child components, each of thechild components corresponding to a sub-option of a higher level optionrepresented by said parent, wherein said maintaining stores helppassages associated with said first component and some of said set ofchild components, wherein a second component representing one of saidset of child components corresponds to said visual component ofinterest, wherein a first help passage is stored associated with saidsecond component, and only said first help passage among all helppassages maintained for said visual components, is sent for display as aresponse to said help icon having been associated with said secondcomponent.